It was a perfect day for the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt... sunny and warm. I
headed
to Old Hill Village with my bicycle. I worked France, Poland, Czech
Rep, Russia,
and Finland for DX and as far west as Colorado in the U.S.

I rode the bike down into the flood control area by Needle Shop
Brook. Then I
headed north toward Bristol on the old Hill Road.

Barely a half mile farther I turned west into the old school yard.
It's over
grown now and has a healthy crop of poison ivy lining the lane way.

I made my way up the hill and picked out an ancient maple tree for
the
antenna. I tossed a line over a branch and pulled up a 30 foot wire.
I
set up the KX3 with the earchi 9:1 unun. In retrospect, I'd made a
poor
choice for location. Firstly, I was in the sun. Secondly, I was
surrounded
by poison ivy and couldn't move easily into the shade. But the view
of
the surrounding area was lovely.

I started out on 14.060 and stayed there for about 20 minutes. Then
I went down the band into
the DX portion to pick up some of the WAE stations. In all I worked
15 stations in about 35 minutes.
Here's the log:

By now I was sweating enough that my shirt was drenched. The rig was
pretty warm too!
There was poison ivy in every direction, and I decided to call it
quits rather than set up in
a new spot altogether.

I rode the bike in the shade for awhile to cool off before heading
back to the car. Once home
I scrubbed with laundry soap to wash off the poison ivy oils.
Hopefully, that does the trick.
Thanks to all for the QSOs and to Larry W2LJ for the great sprint.
73, Jim W1PID